I got asked by a few people but I wrote out this response to jasper-chan's ask on my tumblr. since it's all written out I feel like it'd be at least somewhat appreciated to those who are curious of what I keep in mind while making an original species

WARNING it's a little messy but if you are confused then feel free to ask me questions I'll do my best to answer properly

In general I’d suggest to think "what physical characteristics should be involved with my species? and how can i make it unique?"

for a species to be a species (especially closed species) there should be at least some distinctive physical trait that they're born with.

imo it’s not a very good species if they can take off what would make them a species. for example, a group of kemonomimis that likes to wear a specific fashion is more of a culture than a species. I wouldn’t add their fashion into their main description unless their culture is established.

For example, Rins’ vestas have physical characteristics that they cannot remove that are a part of what makes a vesta a vesta. besides that she established and detailed out their culture and land, so it makes sense that they have a certain way they dress.

Basically (advise from Resa) if you can put your species in a jeans and shirt and still have it look like your unique species, then you’re doing pretty good.

even with my lacies and plant puffs, which are very simply kemonomimi in appearance they have their own characteristics that makes them, them.

A lot of original species are simple in its core but there are things that define their originality and make it justifiable as an original species.

Lacies started from me wanting to combine lace and kemonomimis together, so their aesthetics are simply that. But because that doesn’t hold up as a closed species I wanted to make sure their concept was solid. So I went into detail of how and why they are born to their anatomy. Basically a species with simple aesthetics need to be given more depth to even touch “closed species” range because if I just had their aesthetics and nothing else to them, calling them a closed species would be really shifty because what? people wouldn’t be able to have lace patterns on their character’s because I say so? I don’t want that. So they are closed because of all of their details and aesthetics COMBINED that makes them unique.

Plant puffs are basically kemonomimis with plants growing out of their asses.

What makes them unique is their SPECIFIC bloom stages and cycle with the combination of their appearance and all. I don’t claim animals and plants shoved together, and what I mean by that is that people can take the same concept and be completely unique. I know I’m not the first to put flowers and animals together so I definitely shouldn’t be the last.

If it’s an adoptable species to sell, make them as flexible to settings as you can while retaining their originality.

I, personally, stray from creating specific lands and worlds for my species. I want people who want to keep their species info completely canon to be able to do what they wish and have them interact with other characters.

All my species are unrestricted from specific culture and worlds so that they can fit into modern, fantasy, and any other kind of settings.

Of course, sometimes small societal influences as a species to include so people would know how two Plant Puffs would respond to each other for example: more typically than not, those with “weedy plants” are looked down upon in the Plant Puff community because most don’t want their plants to overpopulate the area.another example is my new Cherubuns, those who don’t wish to sing but have an arcane crystal that would allow them to sing beautifully would be looked down upon. basically if you ignore your talent you’re basically ignoring god’s will and they don’t like that.also my Cherubuns aren’t all religious but they’re inherently so because having a talent come out of nowhere that they can’t explain is pretty great

my lacies don’t have any canon information of how they would interact with each other since it isn’t necessary to the species.

be inspired not a bootleg

say you like someone else’s species, that’s cool. but do not directly copy from it ESPECIALLY if you’re making a profit on it.

for example, Plant Puffs can be a source of inspiration (I’m not rubbing my dick I’m making it easy for me to explain) and so why? break it down to what you like most of the species to the very BASIC BARE BONES.

You like plants and animals together? Maybe you want to restrict it to flowers or a certain type of ivy. Maybe you want the whole package (ie include all types of plants)? Okay, then let’s seeee. Plant puffs are just kemonomimis with plants on their ass! It’s not that original I can do it too. That’s v true, but then think how you’d want the tail then. Do you want the tail to be more organic? Maybe the tails LOOK like branches with flowers but they are actually fluid with bones in them. What else do you like? Do you like ice? They can be kemonomimis with iced plants on them with a detailed and very specific reason why they are like that and there you have a new species. Even so MAKE IT SO THAT EVEN IF SOMEONE ELSE MAKES AN ICED PLANT KEMONOMIMI SPECIES THAT YOURS WOULD STILL STAND OUT

that being said i’m not saying you can’t just have a flat out plant butt but try to force yourself to think outside of the box with the restrictions given to you by your inspiration. Sometimes trying to avoid certain aspects stimulate your mind to think more.

I know with my Cherubuns there are so many angel typed species I really had to think what would be aesthetically pleasing to me and how I could make it original as well as understandable. I started out with this really shit early concept of what I wanted. mostly the style of ears and tail. The shapes around them were suppose to be mana reserves but I scrapped that idea because I didn’t wanna draw orbiting things all of the time because that would be difficult on me LOL also I scrapped the long tail because that would be too much … another important point don’t clusterfuck your species design to make it original try to keep it relatively drawable and simple. but then again i’m the type that likes to keep things simple because i’m really simple minded ^___^;; some people like detailed things and I do too but sometimes it can be too much for a general audience

TL;DR

your species should be physically sound enough to look like your species even if they’re in jeans and a tshirt(quote source to resa kyaa)

try to make your species flexible to different settings/able to communicate with a variety of characters etc

A lot of original species are simple in its core but there are things that define their originality and make it justifiable as an original species.

be inspired but don’t be a bootleg (ie. if you know something exists try to work around the restriction to become even more original)

It takes a lot of work but it's really satisfying in the end. Remember if you have any questions I'll answer! Have fun with your original species!

Quick question. When creating an original species, is it perfectly okay to take existing fantasy or real animals and sort of, blend them? Like, taking a dragon and a fennec fox, mixing them and then adding a personal flair? Like, their horns grow out of their ears and they have the fennec fox fluff at the end of their spiky tail. Really bad example, but I'm just going with the flow of my thoughts here.

well let's say if you see a species that uses ice on its tail in a certain way, instead of taking its almost exact aesthetics and then just renaming it try to figure out new ways to use the ice if you want an ice inspired species. Maybe they can have ice antlers etc, or if you really want the ice on the tail then make it so it could not be mistaken for the other person's species. I'm not very good at examples, but like I said I wanted to make an angel inspired species, but instead of just giving it wings which is done 10000 times before I try to think out of the boxes with those ideas as limitations. ie. because of what I know beforehand, I will avoid wings and common ways of using halos on purpose. So I eventually come up with something I'm satisfied with and a twist of ideas that can be valid as a new concept when it's all together in a package

basically, I mean you can be inspired to make an ice species but don't directly copy the one that inspired you in the first place

Hey there. Do you know if there's somewhere (like a specific forum or group) we can go when we have an "in development" idea for a new species, so that people can give us feedback on it and tips on how to improve our species and make it really original, but without having to fear that someone will just steal the basic raw ideas we already have?

sorry for the extremely late reply but I do not ): and if you have a precious idea I'd say there's no way you should post it online. getting feedback from trusted friends is the best there is in this case!